The Defense Threat Reduction Agency: A straightforward name attached to a complex mission with more dimensions than you probably want to think about. Much of the agency’s research is conducted by universities, including N.C. A&T.

Dr. Marwan Bikdash, director of computational science and engineering at N.C. A&T, has conducted multiple research projects for the agency. His latest concerns the survivability of critical infrastructure, such as the highway system, power grid, water supply, and data networks.

“All of these are large networks that form our infrastructure, and they are designed and optimized essentially independent of each other,” Dr. Bikdash says. “However, in a severe situation, they interact in rather unpredictable ways that we don’t fully understand because we typically don’t design them together.”

DTRA features Dr. Bikdash and HBCUs in general in the podcast above, posted last week. DTRA produced the podcast; DORED added the images.